By Jason Van Horn

When it comes to free-to-play games, you often get what you pay for. While what you're given is technically a game, many of the features that should be in it are either missing or come with a price (no subscription fee means charging customers for even the most minute of reasons). So imagine my surprise then when one of these free-to-play games found its way onto my computer, and it ended up being just as high a quality product as other big name MMORPGs out there. You'll still have to pay to either own or rent some features, but nothing is a requirement and the game can be fully enjoyed without purchasing items using real world currency. Journey into the world of Runes of Magic and find out why it's not only one of the best (if not the best) free-to-play MMORPGs out there, but one of the best ones period.

Character creation is surprisingly deep, given free games often overlook this feature and typically only give a few basic features to change. In Runes of Magic, players start by picking the sex of their character, choosing their skin color, hair color, hairstyle, and face. The game has a nice variety of faces and hairstyles to choose from too, as there are 24 different hairstyles to choose from and 40 different faces for the male characters, as an example; you'll find faces with scars, faces with facial hair, mohawks, shaggy tops, and much more. The game also goes more in-depth with character customization, allowing players to use a sliding scale system to tweak specific body parts, making the head, breasts, height, chest, hips, arms, forearms, hands, legs, calves, and feet as skinny, short, tall, or fat as you'd like. By giving the player so many options to tweak their character, the game does a great job at making sure players won't be seeing their twin constantly running around the world.

Next up, players go about crafting their character by picking their first character class, which are typical of the genre. You've got warrior, scout, rogue, mage, priest, and knight. Each class plays like they do in all other games, where warriors run up and smack people, priests are focused on healing, scouts use long-range bows, etc. The thing that makes Runes of Magic unique is that your character still isn't completely defined yet. After playing the game enough to raise your starting class to level ten, you'll then be instructed to head towards the capital in order to obtain your secondary class, which is picked from the list of classes you didn't previously choose. Secondary classes are raised like regular classes, as you start back at level 1, have to go to the starting zone, and get questing and raising levels all over again. Essentially, by leveling your primary and secondary class, your character ultimately becomes an amalgamation of the two.



Now, though leveling a secondary class does at times feel like an alt, you won't be doing the exact same quests over. Most of the quests that you complete the first time around won't be available when passing through a second time, but there are quests in areas that only present themselves on the second pass thru with a secondary class. The developers were smart in this regard, as it not only gives players new stuff to do, but also some of the rewards are pretty helpful too. Quests are pretty much the standard "kill x amount of enemies" or either "go and fetch and deliver this," but what makes the quests standout is the story, which does a great job at submersing characters into this new game world and its lore.

Another thing I liked about the questing system is how a lot of quests have instant tracking, so if you don't know where to go the computer can help you. Outside of that helpful inclusion, the game is constantly telling you through your mini map where quest specific items are located. If you're supposed to "kill x number of spiders" then all spiders that would count towards that quest will appear as red dots on your map. If you're supposed to be looking around for a specific item in the environment, it will appear as an orange dot on the map. It's an excellent system that holds your hand, but not so much where it doesn't feel like you're exploring on your own.

One of the reasons why Runes of Magic is so comforting is because it has the natural feel of many other MMOs that are currently out or have come before. You click on an enemy to attack, you can navigate around by using the standard WASD keys or by clicking on the ground with your mouse, and as you gain levels you unlock new abilities that often have cooling timers. One thing different about the leveling process is that kills not only net you experience to level a character, but to help level abilities too. If there's a certain move you find yourself using often, it would be wise to take your accumulated experience and apply it to that skill, raising it up as long as you have the points to distribute and it doesn't exceed the level of that class.



I'm not one to usually dabble in crafting, but it's so streamlined and easy to use that it's actually one of the more enjoyable crafting systems out there that I've personally played. After you advance a little into the story, you're presented the task of going around to the different gathering professionals to learn the tricks of the trade. You'll be able to gather herbs, harvest wood, and mine for ore. Resource symbols are constantly popping up on your mini map, so you won't have to look for too long to find a new resource to tap; each resource can usually be tapped multiple times too. Once you've made it to the first big city and checked out the crafting professions, you'll be able to do such tasks as cook, tailor clothes, and make weapons and armor. The only problem I really have with the system is it takes a lot to level up these gathering and crafting professions, so be prepared to gather a lot of stuff and make a lot of useless junk.

Like all free-to-play games, Runes of Magic features its own item mall, but nothing there is a requirement to buy in order to enjoy the game. You can buy items to help make improvements on weapons and armor or remove runes. You can buy a mount that varies from permanent to seven days. You can also buy pets, costume pieces, and housing pieces. One especially nice thing is you don't have to buy housing – it's free. Okay, so it's boring and looks like crap unless you update it, but still, it's nice to have a free place to put some junk and easily switch between one class and another.

Graphically the game is very nice. While the game doesn't feature the best graphics out there when it comes to MMORPGs, it certainly holds its own, and has a motif and styling similar to that of World of Warcraft. Environments range from drab and dark to bright and magical, while both the character and enemy models look pretty good as well. When it comes to audio, Runes of Magic sadly suffers. The sound effects of fighting are fine, but the background music is flawed. The music sounds great when it's playing, but the problem is that it seems like it's rarely doing that. Throughout my time with the game, background music would suddenly die down until eventually disappearing, leaving me with only the sounds of fighting and nothing in the way of ambient music.



Other than my complaint with the music, Runes of Magic is otherwise a brilliant achievement when it comes to free-to-play games. It shows that you can make a game that's fun and not charge gamers a monthly fee just to play. Runes of Magic isn't just a great game for those gamers who want a MMORPG fix but are otherwise on a budget, but it's a great game…period. I'd definitely recommend Runes of Magic to any MMORPG fan out there.

4.5 out of 5